Indena, a Milan, Italy-based company, is celebrating 100 years since it was founded as a supplier of botanical active ingredients for the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries.
 
The company was originally founded by Carlo Boccaccio Inverni and Biagio Alberto Della Beffa, originally being named Inverni Della Beffa, and then Indena. The company immediately had a relevant impact on the market with an approach to the medicinal plants sector that incorporated modern industry and scientific research practices.
 
“Our 100 years journey has taken us to be protagonists on markets around the world, a matter of great pride for an Italian company, still today led by our family,” Indena president Biagio Della Beffa, the founder’s eponymous grandson, said. “Indena is renowned for the high dedication to quality and science, its continuous investment in product innovation, pioneering processes, and constant state of the art technologies. Since its foundation and until today, this is how it has grown to become a leader and a benchmark in the global botanical derivatives sector.”
 
“Today we manage, from our headquarters in Milan, 4 production sites around the world and 5 international subsidiaries, employing a total of over 900 people, most of whom are in the strategic fields of innovation and quality. We also own about 100 patent families and more than 1,000 scientific studies published with qualified research groups. Despite our deep Italian DNA, an international expansion has always characterized Indena, which today has grown and manages 90% of its businesses abroad including collaborations with several partners in very innovative fields,” Indena CEO Daniele Giavini said.
 
Marking a Milestone
 
Indena will be taking on a number of new initiatives during its centennial year. These include a new podcast, called “Phytocast,” which will trace the company’s journey in the medicinal plant field through 12 monthly installments, each with a single theme.
 
The company has also launched a new version of its website, which will provide the most up-to-date and complete showcase of its projects and future endeavors. The new site illustrates the company’s knowledge system, products, services, and innovation, exploring the company’s relationship with technological innovations, science, and natural products.
 
The company is also creating a number of video productions designed to provide information and content to anyone seeking to understand the world of medicinal plants, and their role in supporting health and wellbeing. Lastly, the company will also be publishing a book on the milestones of Indena’s success story in areas such as quality, research and sustainability, and more, told through augmented reality contributions, a type of technology which combines digital media with the real world.
 
This year, a number of researchers at the International Summer School on Natural Products will be awarded a two-year doctorate scholarship named after Colonel Biagio Alberto Della Beffa, the company’s co-founder. Additionally, the company is organizing a congress which will retrace 100 years of quality and innovation in botanical extracts, to publish a volume in a series dedicated to medicinal plants of particular interest to human wellbeing.
 
Sustainability Plans
 
Indena’s centennial also marks a renewal in the company’s commitment to sustainability and biodiversity with a new initiative. The company plans to build a substantial urban redevelopment project this year, namely a green terrace which will provide a habitat for a variety of plant species selected by experts on the basis of biodiversity and sustainability to the local setting. It will serve as an “environmentally valuable space designed with scientific criteria, a tribute to the city and the people who work in the headquarters,” the company said.